The Influence of Online Game on The Learners’ Arabic Vocabulary Achievement

_______________________ *Correspondence Address: helmikamal@iainpalopo.ac.id Abstract: Online game is suggested as a medium that can encourage learners' acquisition of Arabic vocabulary. This research aimed to find out the learners‟ vocabulary achievement before applying online game to the learners and to describe the usage of online game in improving learners‟ vocabulary achievement effectively. This research used Classroom Action Research. There were 30 learners involved. Teaching processes consisted of two-cycle. Interviews, observation, tests, and documentation were the instruments of this research. The results of the tests were analyzed by using SPSS 20; the results of the interview and observation were analyzed qualitatively. The author found that online game improves learners‟ vocabulary. The average score in cycle I was better than the average score in cycle II. The Pretest results in cycle I showed the greatest score obtained by the learners was 76. While in the Post test of the cycle I, the greatest score obtained by the learner was 90. Whereas in cycle II, the greatest score obtained by the learners was 100. Based on the observation, the learners were more excited on studying and focus on finishing their task; the learners could understand well the subject was given, and the learners were more enthusiastic in memorizing vocabulary. The author had successfully provided a new experience for learners who always learn conventionally by involving into the appealing and interactive online game-based learning atmosphere. The author hoped this research could be guidance for the effectuality of the next Arabic language learning through the online game in the class.


Introduction
Vocabulary is one of the essential language aspects 1 and it is basic aspect in language that has to be mastered. Lack of vocabulary might cause inability to communicate well in the target language for the learners. In learning a foreign language, vocabulary becomes something crucial due to it involves integrated language skills.
Regardless of vocabulary role in creating effective communication, learners often have trouble in studying vocabulary 2 . There are a lot of obstacles in learning vocabulary such as individual differences in their ability, the affective components (motivation, attitudes towards vocabulary learning, worry about lack of success) or the language learning aptitude 3 .
Based on a 4-week pre-observation in the tenth-grade learners of Islamic Boarding School of Palopo, it was found that some learners also admitted that they have different school backgrounds between one another. Some learners come from an Islamic school; other learners come from general school. It certainly will become a problem in the sustainability of the learning process because several students who come from general school have never studied Arabic. Meanwhile, the learners who come from Islamic school basic knowledge about Arabic. This will also affect lahjah (learners" pronunciation) in reading Arabic text 4 . Besides, conventional approach is still used in their teaching and learning activity which the teachers become dominated in learning activities (teacher-centred learning activities), and the learning guidance is measured from the completion of learners working on the worksheet. Teachers tend to use the same method of delivering lesson material, so that the learning activity is less attractive to learners, as well as in language development lesson, especially in improving the ability of Arabic vocabular. The result of observation showed that learners are being lazy, sleeping on their desk, and chattering with their friend, not paying attention to the learning material. Besides, some information was obtained that the learners were unable to transfer the meaning of words and difficult to spell the words correctly and properly.
The teaching-learning atmosphere has to be outgoing and the use of conventional techniques and instructional devices should be changed 5 . The learners have to achieve the learning processes. To overcome this problem, the teacher or the facilitator applies distinct kinds of teaching techniques, methods, materials, aids, media, and strategies. If the teacher applies merely an oral explanation or lecture method, effective learning will not go well. In the previous years, educators issued instructions and sustained learning 2 Serkan Çelik and Veli Toptaş, ""Vocabulary Learning Strategy Use of Turkish EFL Learners"", Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 3, (2010 processes by using many forms of media. The examples of instructional media are conventional ways of providing instructions (whiteboards, books, LCD, and pictures), mass media used for education (magazine, movie, radio, advertisement, and television), and recent electronic devices (laptop, video, smartphone, and tablet).
Due to the technology development, educators need to integrate technology in Arabic language teaching for some reasons 6 . First, technological innovations are possible ways to enhance learners' attentiveness and motivation in Arabic learning 7 . Second, through online learning, the process of teaching language can run effectively, and money and time are not wasted 8 . Third, Arabic online learning used extensively brought through learners to utilize various learning strategies to reach the learning and teaching objectives of the Arabic language course 9 . Online learning assists educators with a restricted supply of learning materials 10 . Therefore, the author was interested in researching online game in teaching vocabulary although some researchers found that there are also several students do not understand about the utility and the easiness of use of playing online game at school 11 .
Online games are learning by applying games through the internet 12 . By using the online game in the teaching and learning process, the learners can develop their critical thinking skills 13 . Online games create an interactive and motivating context where learners can handily and subconsciously disseminate their information, and also due to their needs and duties during playing. Therefore, online games are useful in vocabulary acquisition 14 . Online game enlarges learner"s perception, concentration, immersion and knowledge progress 15 . It is useful for studying vocabulary in a language class, and it motivates learners for studying. The online game can make teachers work easier, and learners may access to diverse type of vocabularies 16 . There are several previous researchers talked about online game such as Azizi and Subiyanto,17 Belkouche, 18 Prensky, 19 Zou et.al,20 online game for children with dyslexia (Vasalou et.al), 21 scrabble game media for learning Arabic (Saputra). 22

Method
Classroom action research was used in this research. Classroom action research is small-scale classroom research carried out by teachers and it aimed at enhancing learning outcomes. Teachers used classroom action research to solve a problem or an issue in the classroom 23 . The procedure of Classroom Action Research is repeated cycle"s form 24 .
There were four common stages of classroom action research, namely, planning, implementation or action, observation, and reflection. The design of this research referred to the planning of how to teach vocabulary well and it is about using the online game in vocabulary learning. The participant of the research was the tenth-graders of learners. There were 2 males and 33 females. Their ages were around 19 years old. The author chose these learners because their vocabulary needs an improvement.
The author used interview, observation, test, and documentation as the instruments of the research. The author used a structural interview. In learning vocabulary process, the author observed to know the learners" interest and activeness during teaching and learning process. In this case, the author investigated directly in school. The test consisted of 30 questions. In part A, the learners translated the words into Indonesian which consisted of 10 questions. In part B, multiple-choice consisted of 10 questions and in part C, there were 10 matching the words with the pictures questions.
To collect the data, the author did some steps. The steps are mentioned below: (1) The author asked some questions to the learners to get some primarily information about the learners.
(2) The author observed the learners" condition before implementing online game and to see the learners" behaviour during the teaching and learning processes. (3) The author tested the learners. Their purpose was to know the learners" achievement on vocabulary and to know whether online game can develop the learners" capability. (4) The author taught the learners by using online game. Every cycle in the classroom consisted of planning, implementation/action, observation, and reflection.
The data from observation and interview were analyzed qualitatively. The data were taken from the test analyzed by using the following steps: (1) The author tried to get the score per action within one cycle. It was used to know how well learners" score as a whole on vocabulary skill. The raw score for the correct answer was 1. The raw score for the incorrect answer was 0. (2) Raw scores were converted to a set of core of maximum 0f 100, using the following formula:

00
(3) The author converted the score of the learners. (4) The author classified the score of the learners into rubric score by Brown. (5) The author tried to get the class percentage which passed the criteria of minimal mastery level considering Arabic subject gains score 76 which was adapted from the school agreement. (6) To analyze the objective test from learners, the author used Statistical Produce and Service Solution (SPSS) version 20 for windows.

Result and Discussion
How was the learners' vocabulary achievement before the vocabulary improvement activity?
Before implementing CAR, the author interviewed the learners in the first semester. The learners" answer were: 60% learners like studying English and 40% learners dislike studying Arabic. They thought that Arabic was difficult because they did not know the averageing and the teacher gave them the monotonous technique in learning Arabic. When the author gave them some vocabularies taken from learners" book, then the author asked them to memorize the whole vocabulary. Besides, the author also asked them to memorize some conversation that makes them bored and they easily forobtained what they had memorized because the vocabularies were never recalled.
In the initial test, the average score was 65.97. 4 learners obtained score "76" and passed minimum completeness criteria (>76), 8 learners obtained score "73", 6 learners obtained score "70", 4 learners obtained score "67", 1 learner obtained the score of 63, 2 learners obtained score "60", 1 learner obtained score "53", 1 learner obtained score "47" and 3 learners obtained score "40." The value of learner"s learning outcomes in initial test was grouped into five categories, the learning outcomes of learners are presented as follows: The table 1 showed that the learners" score at the pretest in cycle I there was no one obtained excellent and good classification, 18 learners (60%) obtained adequate classification, 7 learners (23%) obtained inadequate classification and 5 learners (17%) obtained poor classification. Based on the author"s observation, most of the learners taking part in this research did not have high learning motivation as the author expected.
Lack of learning motivation assuredly has a negative impact on learners" language prowess 25 .
How did the online game improve vocabulary achievement more effectively to the tenth grade learners of Islamic Boarding School of Palopo?
The action conducted in two cycles that covered four meetings. The obstruction and failure found in cycle 1 and then looked for the solution and applied to the next cycle.
The result of the research could be reported as follows: Cycle 1 There were two meetings in cycle 1. Time allocation for each meeting was 80 minutes. The author modified the steps of teaching process in the first and second meeting. The author found that the learners" score was better than the initial test. Twentyone learners had reached minimal completeness criteria (> 76). 2 learners obtained score "90", three learners obtained score "87", three learners obtained score "83", nine learners obtained score "80", four learners obtained score "76", one learner obtained score "73", two learners obtained score "70", one learner obtained score "67", one learner obtained score "66", one learner obtained score "63" and three learners obtained score "60." The results of learners" achievement in cycle one were classified into five categories as follows: The table 2 showed that the post test score in cycle I there were two learners (7%) obtained excellent classification, 15 learners (50%) obtained good classification, seven learners (23%) obtained adequate classification, six learners (20%) obtained inadequate classification, and the good thing that there was no one learner obtained failing classification. The author also observed the learners" activeness in learning processes.
She found that there were 30% learners very active in the learning process, 43% learners were active, 27% learners were less active to join the study, and nobody was inactive. 25 Wu and Lin-Fang, "A Study of Factors Affecting College Learners" Use of ESL Vocabulary The implementation of learning by using the online game in the cycle I could be said to be quite good, but there were still some obstacles. The constraints were some learners still less active in the learning process, and the learners were unfocused on the author"s explanation. These obstacles were caused by learners who were still uninterested in learning vocabulary. The learners" need, capacities, and skills are a good match for the demands offered by a specific activity. The learners" interest showed in an activity or an area of knowledge forecasts how much they would present to it and how they processed, understood, and thought about it. The result of this finding is similar to Hidayat (2016) who stated that in his research, the learners had not mastered any vocabulary because they did not bring an English dictionary and did not pay attention to the material explanation 26 .

Cycle 2
There were two meetings in cycle 2. In this cycle, the steps of teaching vocabulary were different from cycle 1. In this cycle, the learners competed in the group to check whether the learners mastered the materials. The author asked every group to raise their hand if they knew the answer. In which, every group had to say the words, the meanings and the class of the word directly.
The author found that the learners" score was better than the post test in cycle I, 29 learners had reached minimal completeness criteria (> 76), and only one learner had not reached it yet because she obtained score "73". The results of learners" achievement in cycle 2 were as follows: classification, five learners (17%) obtained adequate classification, and there was no one learner obtained inadequate and poor classification.
The author observed the learners in cycle II. The observation phase in cycle II was recorded on the participation of activeness in each learner towards the process of learning English. The learners' activity was obtained from observation sheets in the meeting recorded in each cycle; the observation sheet was used to determine the participation or motivation of learners in learning vocabulary by using the online game.
The author found that the learners' were more active than in cycle I, there were 40% learners very active in the learning process, 47% learners were active to study, 13% learners were less active to study, and every student was active in class. It can be concluded that most of the learners were active in the learning process.
The average score of the learners' achievement in vocabulary showed the comparison of all averages scores achieved from pre test, cycle 1 and cycle 2. Based on the table 4, we can see that there was an improvement since initial test up to cycle 2. The difference from the initial test to the final test in cycle 1 was 10.8. On the other hand, the difference between final test in cycle 1 and cycle 2 was 11.
Vocabulary knowledge differs among learners. There are learners who have rich and poor vocabulary. Learners have a restricted vocabulary due to some factors namely vocabulary is not boosted at home because their mother tongue does not provide them of opportunities for exercise English repeatedly. Learners get less experience outside of their home, and English is their second language 27 . There are several factors which cause difficulties, such as motivation, attitudes, language anxiety, self-confidence, language ability, and family 28 . Motivation is one of the crucial factors which improve learners" language learning acquisition. A learner can achieve plentiful vocabulary with the help of vocabulary learning strategies. A factor affects learnerps" vocabulary mastery, namely in teaching vocabulary, teachers should afford learners an opportunity to encounter words recurrently and in more than one context 29 . One of the most important things in studying vocabulary is to keep words in mind, or more exactly to save words in memory. In studying language, memorizing vocabulary takes a vital role 30 .
Burguillo, 31 Chen et al., 32 Dickey, 33 Harris & Reid, 34 John, 35 Miller et al, 36 Sahrir & Zainuddin 37 explained the same benefits of learning vocabulary by using online game included developing learning motivation, improving learners" acquisition in language, and increasing learner"s activity. Children, teenagers, and adults show a high and positive level of acceptance toward online game and allow them to use online game as a medium of teaching and learning 38 .
Based on the observation, the learners focused on finishing the task, the learners could understand well the subject was given, the learners were more enthusiastic in memorizing vocabulary by using word building, and the learners were more cooperative in their group when they were given activities. This fact was suitable with the advantages of learning by using online game for encouraging the learners to study seriously. These activities are enjoyable, innovative and interesting enough to keep the learners engaged with words. 3940 As an alternative to worksheets, the teachers can use games as a less stressful way for learners to demonstrate their knowledge, skill and comprehending of a topic. Being less stressed will help learners to have a more positive perception of their learning environment and give a true indication of their own learning. Besides, by using games, learners can refresh when they are bored with teacher-centered, textbook and examination 41 . Learners and teachers give highly positive response about the role of games in making their language better 42 . Games received a high and positive level of acceptance among users especially children and teenagers as well as adults that allow them to use it as a medium for teaching and learning. To conclude, the author asserted that online game can be both educational and entertaining. It gives learners plenty of opportunity to play while working. They can study everywhere and every time 43 .
The limitations of this research are in accordance with Masita 44 ,Albahtani and Rahmadi 45 ,and Vasbieva et al., 46 that the internet connection was unstable, some learners were new to the online game so that they had trouble accessing the application, every learner had different duration in understanding the lesson; some learners were quickly absorbing the lesson given while the others slowly understood the lesson, and this research was just conducted in one school, so that perhaps the next research will be conducted in several schools.

Conclusion
The author revealed that online game can improve the learners" vocabulary of the tenth grades students in Islamic Boarding School of Palopo. The online game was effective to be applied in learning because the learners study vocabulary actively. The learners" score evidence it that they have passed criteria of minimum mastery. In the pretest, four-learners passed criteria of minimum mastery, and the average score was 65.97. Different from the post test cycle I, which there were 21 learners passed minimum completeness criteria, and the average score was 76.77, then their scores improved in cycle II. Twenty-nine learners passed minimal completeness criteria with the average score was 87.77. It can be concluded that the author has successfully provided a new experience for learners who used to learn conventionally by involving into the appealing and interactive online game-based learning atmosphere. Theoretically, this research is hopeful of enriching the theory of Arabic vocabulary. Practically, this research brings some benefits for the teachers, the learners and the next researcher. This research is useful for the teacher to help his/her in choosing the appropriate material in teaching vocabulary. For the learners, it is helpful to increase their Arabic vocabulary. For the next researcher, the author suggests them to research a same topic with a distinct perspective and also to facilitate the readers in applying online game in Arabic teaching.
Hopefully, it will attract the reader to practice online game in their learning vocabulary.
The author suggested to another next researcher that they may use or create technological tools; however, they must concern how learners" attitude is different in offline class compare to online learning.